Air Canada cancels plans to resume flights Sunday as union defies back-to-work order

“Our members are not going back to work,” CUPE National president Mark Hancock said outside Toronto’s Pearson Airport. “We are saying no.”

Union members were picketing outside the airport’s departures terminal on Sunday morning. 

In a statement on Sunday afternoon, the airline said CUPE “illegally directed its flight attendant members to defy a direction” from the industrial relations board. 

As a result, Air Canada said it will plan to resume flights as of Monday evening. About 240 flights that were scheduled to take off on Sunday were cancelled. 

The federal government said Saturday that it was ordering the airline and its flight attendants back to work, ending a strike and lockout after less than 12 hours.

Federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu said she was invoking Section 107 of the Labour Code to ask the Canada Industrial Relations Board to send the two sides to binding arbitration. 

Hajdu’s office did not respond immediately to a request for comment about the union defying the back-to-work order on Sunday.

Hancock said the union received notice from the CIRB late Saturday, informing them of the impending return to work. He said the union felt the “whole process has been unfair.”

“Air Canada has really refused to bargain with us, and they refused to bargain with us because they knew this government would come in on their white horse and try and save the day,” he said.

Air Canada said more than 700 Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge flights had been cancelled during the work stoppage as of Saturday. The strike has left thousands of passengers stranded or struggling to find ways to reach their destinations.

The airline said it will offer people whose flights were cancelled options including a full refund, travel credit or rebooking on other carriers, though it noted that “capacity is currently limited due to the peak summer travel season.”

Air Canada said on Sunday that the CIRB has ordered the terms of the collective agreement between the union and the airline that expired on March 31 be extended until a new agreement is reached.

CUPE, which represents more than 10,000 flight attendants, has accused Hajdu of caving to Air Canada’s demands. 

CUPE also said it is inviting Air Canada back to the table to negotiate a fair deal.

The union called for a “day of action” on Sunday, with demonstrations planned outside of the Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary airports.

Natasha Stea, the president of the local 4091 for flight attendants based in Montreal, said the workers supported defying the back-to-work order. 

“I want to be very clear, Air Canada is choosing to do this to our passengers, to our company, because we are the face of the company, and they’re trying to blame us for all this and getting together with their friends in the government to kind of circumvent all our rights,” she said at a demonstration outside the Toronto airport.

She said workers are “done being abused and exploited.”

“Where you have a multi-billion dollar company that’s refusing to pay living wages to their employees, I just don’t know.” 

CUPE originally announced its members were heading to the picket lines after being unable to reach an eleventh-hour deal with the airline, while Air Canada locked out its agents about 30 minutes later due to the strike action.

The union has said its main sticking points revolve around wages that have been outpaced by inflation during its previous 10-year contract, along with unpaid labour when planes aren’t in the air.

Air Canada had previously asked Hajdu to order the parties to enter a binding arbitration process.

Flights on Air Canada Express, operated by Jazz or Pal, were not affected by the strike. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 17, 2025.

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